Mr. The Effects of Land Use/Land Cover Change on Lake Abaya-Chamo Wetland Ecosystem Services

Wetland Ecosystem Services reduction

Abstract

Although wetlands in Ethiopia provide multiple ecosystem services, they are extremely affected due to human pressure and limited policy attention. This study was aimed at analyzing the ecological services and drivers of degradation of Abaya-Chamo lake-wetland. Data were gathered using a questionnaire survey of 304 HH (selected via systematic sampling), interviews, and satellite images. Normalized difference vegetation, water, and turbidity indices were used for satellite image interpretation via Arc GIS. Mean, standard deviation, correlation, and regression were used for data analyses. Abaya-Chamo lake-wetland offers fish, timber, firewood, fodder, irrigation, farmland, rainfall, habitat, tourism, aesthetics, recreation, carbon sink, air quality, and climate control services. The area showed siltation-led raising turbidity and a loss of 48.9% of its swamp area from 1990 –to 2019. Farm expansion, siltation, irrigation, invasive plants, open access and overuse of resources, lack of legal framework, and rapid population growth were the main drivers of wetland degradation. Land degradation is anticipated adjacent to the lake-wetland in the next few decades due to irrigation. Invasive plants result in dwindling aquatic resources, economic and tour benefits, and change in local climate thereby depleting water, and the dissolved O₂ and CO₂ sink capacity of the lake-wetland rapidly. Thus, the government should formulate a clear policy and legal framework for the sustainable management of wetlands.